By: Stephanie Kalota
Founder, Veteran Legislative Voice & AHG Correspondent
This latest move is one of many that have been taken in order to legalize marijuana in the United States. Per the Justice Department, “President Biden asked the Attorney General and the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to launch a scientific review of how marijuana is scheduled under federal law. After receiving HHS’s recommendations last August, the Attorney General sought the legal advice of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) on questions relevant to this rulemaking. In light of HHS’ medical and scientific determinations, and OLC’s legal advice, the Attorney General exercised his authority under the law to initiate the rulemaking process to transfer marijuana to schedule III.”
On May 21st, the DEA made the recommendation to transfer marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III, consistent with the HHS’s views. Since then, all eyes have been watching for news from the Department of Justice (DOJ). In May, the DOJ opened up a public forum for anyone to submit their comments regarding marijuana rescheduling. They received more than 40,000 submissions, which included a coalition of reform groups, governors, members of Congress, and medical professionals. Since the public forum has closed this month, we are all awaiting for the DOJ’s next step.
There are still more actions that need to be taken before marijuana is transferred to Schedule III. But in the meantime, 9 senators, led by Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) have signed a letter to VA Secretary Denis McDonough. They are hoping that the VA will expand access to medical marijuana treatments for veterans who currently live in states where it is legal. They are hoping that this would start the process early while the federal government has yet to officially make marijuana Schedule III.
The letter states “Congress tasked the VA with providing the best quality health options for our veterans and the Department has repeatedly affirmed that suicide prevention is its top clinical priority. To fulfill these obligations, VHA providers must be able to discuss the full range of legal treatment options with their VA patients. This requires the VA to commit to robust research to analyze, integrate, and coordinate cannabis care, to develop a VA-approved standard of care. This is essential to adequately prepare VHA providers to discuss, recommend, and assist patients in qualifying for enrollment in state-legal medical cannabis programs.
This standard of care must, at a minimum, include sufficient education for VHA providers on the endocannabinoid system and the benefits and risks of medical cannabis use. This includes their existing rights as state-licensed physicians under Section 301 of the Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Act of 2022 to discuss medical cannabis as a treatment without risk of violating the CSA. It must also include state-specific instructions for enrolling patients in state-legal medical cannabis programs. Updates to the VHA’s electronic medical record system to include a code for “medical cannabis use” separate from the only current cannabis code, “cannabis use disorder,” are also essential.”
This letter was submitted prior to the closing of the public forum by the DOJ.
